


Dollhouse

by DangerRollins



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Gen, Supportive Rick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-25
Updated: 2017-11-25
Packaged: 2019-02-06 19:50:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12824832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DangerRollins/pseuds/DangerRollins
Summary: Carl finds some toys to play with but they aren't exactly for him. Rick just wants his son to be happy.





	Dollhouse

**Author's Note:**

> This is inspired by that scene Rick had with Patrick at the Prison. I love it so much! That scene was adorable.

Rick had been looking for Carl all over the place for more than half the day. He wasn't in their house, he'd left before Rick and Michonne had even woken up, which was odd, but Rick wasn't too worried. Lately, he'd been waking up early to help keep watch or do something productive around the community. Rick figured he just didn't want to disturb their sleep this morning. Rick had checked the watchtower first, and Sasha had still been there. She said Carl hadn't come up this morning.

Rick just shrugged it off and started going about his day. He figured it was likely that Carl was with Carol, then. When he wasn't helping keep watch he was usually with Carol. He liked that he got to be 'Normal' with her, cooking and cleaning and being neighborly. It was fun for him, especially the cooking. Carol always let him lick whatever spoon they'd been using and do taste tests on whatever food they were cooking, and then she'd fix him a big plate and let him eat as much of it as he could. He loved it!

However, Rick had discovered an hour after visiting the watch tower that Carol hadn't seen Carl either. Rick was a little put off by it, but not really. He figured Carl was probably off hanging out with his new friends—What had their names been? Enid and Ron? So, he didn't worry.

After walking around the town for a bit, though, he noticed that both Enid and Ron were walking around together, no Carl in sight. When he asked them about him they said they hadn't seen him since the last time they'd hung out with him which had been two days ago. Rick knew then that Carl had to be in the infirmary.

He didn't go there all too often, but every now and then he'd stop by and hang out with Tara and Denise. He liked reading the medical books Denise had and enjoyed playing a game with the two girls where they'd list off some symptoms and a few illnesses and he'd guess which one it was. If they weren't doing that, he was poking around in the medicine Cabinet or messing with medical tools. Rick had told him not to go there so much, knowing that Denise was probably busy trying to save people's lives and didn't need to have to look after a teenager too, but when she wasn't busy she said he was more than welcome in the infirmary.

When he got there and noticed that only Tara and Denise were in the room he frowned. They said they hadn't seen him all day either, and now he was just a little bit worried. It wasn't like Carl to just up and disappear like he had this morning in the first place, but if he did, surely he'd at least hang around the places he usually hung around so if Rick did happen to be looking for him he'd be easy to find.

Briefly, Rick wondered if he'd gone outside the walls, but he quickly pushed that thought out of his head. Carl could be impulsive sometimes, but he'd never just up and decide to go outside the gates for no one reason. Rick would have his ass if he ever did. Besides, he hadn't expressed any interest in going outside in a while, so, he probably hadn't. If he had, Sasha would've seen him, and somebody would've had to open the gate for him anyway.

Rick made his way through the town asking everyone he knew if they'd seen the boy. Jessie, Daryl, Abraham and Rosita, Eugene. Nobody had seen the boy today, and now he was panicking. What if something terrible had happened while he was asleep?

He tried to be logical. Carl couldn't be far, he was definitely inside the walls, safe, and nobody had gotten in to get him. Just as he couldn't get out, nobody could've gotten in. Somebody would've seen someone trying to get in in less than a few seconds and they would've handled it.

Carl was safe. He had to be.

But where the hell was he? Why had he just up and disappeared for no reason? Rick just couldn't figure it out.

Eventually, he'd walked around town more times than he could've counted and still no signs of Carl anywhere. Tired of walking and also tired of worrying, Rick took a seat on the porch of an older house. It was an abandoned one, he was sure, so he figured taking a seat for a moment couldn't hurt anything.

As he heard laughter from inside, he thought that maybe he was wrong. Maybe this place was somebody's home. He was going to leave the porch so he wouldn't bother anybody, but something stopped him. That laughter was oddly familiar. Sure, he hadn't been able to hear it in what seemed to be a very long time, but it was still familiar.

Rick carefully stood up and slowly opened the front door, wincing as it creaked loudly. The laughter grew louder the further he walked in, and thankfully it'd covered the noise of the door up.

He glanced around wearily, noticing that the seemingly abandoned house looked brand new. It was probably even nicer than his own. It was freakishly clean as well.

He trudged toward the stairs and walked up as quietly as he could, cursing his boots for having loud heels on them. He walked towards the end of the hallway which is where he heard all the noise coming from, and stopped once he noticed Carl's figure sitting on the ground in a room through the cracked door. Rick pushed the door softly, opening it further, and a confused smile crossed his face as he noticed his son playing with what seemed to be a Barbie dream house. It had a pool around it and everything! It was pretty big and must've cost a fortune.

Rick hid himself the best he could around the small wall that separated the room and the hallway and glanced around. The room had tons of toys in it, and it looked almost brand new just like the rest of the house. The room was painted a bright pink color and had a hardwood floor, although it was hard to tell from all the toys scattered along it. Rick looked towards a corner of the room and noticed Carl's comics lying there along with his hat and gun.

Carl's laughter had died down and Rick squeezed himself closer to the wall to avoid being seen as Carl stood up and walked toward the small bed that was in another corner of the room. He tripped on a small toy, cursing loudly in the process, and usually, Rick would've scolded him for the foul language, but he couldn't help the small laugh that escaped him. He covered his mouth quickly, praying that Carl hadn't heard him, but he had.

"Who's there?" Carl called, scrambling to get to his gun. Rick stepped out quickly with his hands up in defense. He grinned, about to tease the boy for almost shooting his own dad, but he didn't say anything when he noticed all the color drain from his son's face. He looked more afraid seeing his own dad than he would've looked had the person intruding been an actual threat.   
"D-Dad." He stuttered, dropping his gun.

Rick figured he was just worried that he was in trouble for sneaking off to a random house to play, and yeah, he definitely was, but Rick decided that'd he'd be gentle with the boy for now. "It's okay." He reassured him as he slowly stepped into the room. "You shouldn't have snuck off like that but I get it."

"Y-You do?" Carl asked, backing away from Rick as he came closer. Rick frowned, wondering why the boy was acting so weird. He'd done far worse than sneaking off to be a kid again in the past and he'd never been all that afraid of the consequences then. What had changed?

"Yeah." Rick shrugged.

"I'm sorry." Carl apologized. Rick only grew more confused as he noticed tears forming in the young boy's eyes. "Carl, what's wrong?" He asked.

"They're girl toys." He said it as if Rick hadn't already noticed. "I'm not supposed to play with those. And they're for kids too."

"You are a kid."

"Little kids. Ages 5-11 for the dollhouse." Carl squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head before looking down. "Shouldn't have been playing with a dollhouse period." He whispered.

"Carl-"

"I'm sorry! It's just...I found this place last week. Enid, Ron and I were playing hide and seek...Well, I was. They were just trying to get me away from them so they could make out for five minutes and then come and get me." He rolled his eyes. They treated him like a child sometimes. They never let him see them kiss or do anything even remotely romantic. Not that he wanted to! It's just, he didn't not want to...? At the end of the day, they were all the same age. They didn't have to try to keep him from seeing them do things like that. It was completely unnecessary! "I ran in here because it looked abandoned, and, well, it's nice here." He shrugged. "I was gonna just leave. I figured I should hide somewhere else because maybe someone lived here, but then I heard Enid and Ron talking and they were close and...So, I panicked and I decided to come upstairs and then I hid in here and..." He sighed. "I haven't seen this many toys in a while. I thought it was cool. I wanted to play with them. Then I realized that was weird, and that I should try to find some boy toys to play with. Some made for people my age. I couldn't find any, though. Whoever lived here had a daughter, not a son. I was gonna just forget about this place because I didn't think you'd like me playing with these kinds of toys, but...It's been a while." He mumbled, blushing.

"Carl..." Rick sighed, going to stand in front of the boy. "I know this is tough. The world we live in now isn't made for kids. Isn't made for anybody. It's been a long time, just like you said. You deserve to be happy and you deserve to be a kid again. I'm glad you found this place. I'm glad you have toys to play with. I don't care who they were made for. Girls, boys, kids, teenagers. Doesn't matter to me. Enjoy yourself, Carl. You deserve it."

Carl smiled a little and leaned forward to hug his dad. Rick squeezed him tightly before letting go again. Rick wanted to leave it alone, but he was curious and he had to ask. "Did you...Did you just keep this from me? Because you thought I'd be mad at you? Did you tell anybody else?"

Carl shook his head quickly. "You would've been the first person I told if I would've told anybody about this cool ass—This really cool place, dad." He smiled innocently and batted his eyelashes, trying to avoid getting in trouble for his slip up. "I know it's selfish, cause maybe Enid and Ron would like this place too, but...I just thought it was nice that I was the only one that knew about it. I could come here when I needed to just disappear for a little bit. Pretend nothing is wrong."

Rick nodded, stroking Carl's hair and sending him a sympathetic smile. "I get it. We all need to be alone sometimes. Your secret is safe with me. Just let me know the next time you wanna come here, alright? You had me worried sick and now half the town thinks you're missing. I've been running around like a madman all day trying to find you."

Carl laughed before covering it with a fake cough. "Sorry, dad. I'll let you know next time." He grinned.

"Great. You can stay here a while longer if you want. Or you could come back with me. Carol said she was gonna bake you cookies-"

"I'm coming with you!" Carl nodded eagerly, halfway out the door before Rick could even think about walking. Rick chuckled and shook his head.

"Dad?"

"Yeah, Carl?"

"I still wanna keep this place a secret, but I wanna tell Judith about it too. I think she'd like it here. Think she can keep a secret?"

It warmed Rick's heart to know that Carl was thinking about Judith. He himself had thought that the little girl would love playing with all these toys, especially when she was older, but he didn't want to say anything because this place was Carl's.

"She doesn't talk much." Rick chuckled.

"She will, eventually."

"We'll convince her to keep it quiet."


End file.
